A hypervisor is a virtual machine manager that facilitates access to a host machine's hardware among one or more virtual clients (e.g., a virtual computer executing a virtual operating system) that may be instantiated on the host machine. In a secure environment, the virtual client may be configured with a security policy. The security policy may have been approved by a government official or other third-party. In some instances, the processing for approving the security policy may take a significant amount of time, such as weeks or months. Thus, when a virtual client is instantiated with the security policy, the virtual client must be audited to confirm that the virtual client conforms to the approved security policy. This process can also take an inordinate amount of time, which delays the deployment of the virtual client.
Further still, if the virtual client is instantiated with an application that has changed since the approval of the security policy, there is the potential that the virtual client will fail the audit. In instances where the security audit is performed manually, there is a non-trivial chance that the auditor will miss the change in the virtual client—leading to the operation of a virtual client that does not conform to the previously approved security policy. Security policies may also change, which introduces another non-trivial possibility that the auditor may approve a virtual client for operation.
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.